# Licenses and Offline Use

> How a purchased Railbase business module verifies its license offline, so a network blip never suspends your production instance.

_Updated: 2026-07-02_

## Your instance checks the license, not us

When you buy a business module, it ships with a short, signed license token. Your own Railbase instance verifies that token **offline** — no call back to railbase.app is needed to confirm you are entitled to run the module. The license lives on your server, alongside your data, and keeps working whether or not your instance can reach the internet at that moment.

## What the license carries

Railbase pricing is value-based, so a license carries only the claims that fit the module. A billable role-seat module like the GL ledger names the operator seats you bought (viewers stay free). A company-plan module like Translate carries the plan and its fair-use quota. A tenant-plan module like Risk carries the tenant tier. Auditors, controllers reviewing reports, and other read-only viewers **do not consume paid operator seats** — you pay for the people who operate, not the people who look.

## The heartbeat keeps things current

Your instance periodically checks in with the marketplace — a lightweight heartbeat. That is how renewals, seat or plan changes, and revocations flow in without you reinstalling anything. The heartbeat is for updates; it is **not** a permission gate on day-to-day use.

## A grace window covers in-flight renewals

Renewals and networks are never perfectly punctual, so a transient lapse never suspends production. A **14-day grace window** (default) covers an in-flight renewal or a temporarily unreachable heartbeat. The module keeps running normally throughout.

## What happens at the edges

- **Expired and unrenewed:** after the grace window passes with no renewal, the module goes **dormant** — it stops operating, but **your data is preserved**. Renew and it wakes back up.
- **Explicit revoke, refund, or chargeback:** the module stops **immediately** — no grace. Again, **your data stays intact** on your server.

Nothing here deletes your records. Dormancy and revocation pause the software; the data remains yours.

## FAQ

### Do I need internet access to use a paid module?
No. The license verifies offline. You only need occasional connectivity for the heartbeat to pull in renewals and changes — and a 14-day grace window covers gaps.

### If my license lapses, do I lose my data?
No. An unrenewed license goes dormant after grace with data preserved, and even an explicit revoke or chargeback stops the module while leaving your data intact.

### Do auditors and viewers need paid seats?
No. Read-only viewers and auditors do not consume paid operator seats on role-seat modules.

See [licensing and seats](../learn/licensing-and-seats) for how seats and plans map to each module, and [managing billing](../learn/managing-billing) for renewals and changes.

Ready to move? [Browse business modules](../plugins) or [plan an implementation](../develop).